#trianglesstartups Andrea Martins-Upstart Biz. Jour. I f youre a passionate hustler who is convinced your startup idea could be the next Facebook or Uber, chances are youll need a talented hacker to bring it to life. But how do you find and sweet-talk a tech co-founder to trade à la carte sushi for DIY noodles? When I sold my first online venture last year, I dreamed of creating something bigger and better. As soon as I had my idea, I went looking for a tech co-founder because I knew I couldnt do it on my own. Smart people in my startup community told me it would be like finding a needle in a haystack. One advisor even handed me a list of books on how to code. But I wasntJustine Bateman– I didnt have four years to go study coding at UCLA. I needed action on my concept, yesterday. A few months down the track and Ive proved it is possible to attract your ideal co-founder. Mine can code our MVP, architect our SEO, share expenses, wow potential investors and probably juggle eggs on a unicycle as well! To help you find and sweet-talk your ideal tech co-founder as well, here are nine lessons from my journey that I hope might help you: 1. Aim High When I started sharing my idea, some of my peers politely suggested that I be flexible in my selection criteria because anyone was better than no one. But Angel Lists CEO Naval Ravikant says,Picking a co-founder is your most important decision. Its more important than your product, market, and investors. So, unlike Bridget Fondas character in the 1992 film Singles, who had a mile-long list of boyfriend criteria and then ended up compromising on any man who would say bless you when she sneezed, I set the benchmark high. 2. Prepare like a Shark Tank contestant Just because your business idea came to you like a flash of lightning, doesnt mean your business case should too. Dedicate one full week, month or even longer to gather as much initial intelligence as you can about your competition and your unique service proposition. You might not think you signed up to be quizzed on Shark Tank but as soon as you start sharing your idea with potential tech co-founders, youll sure feel like you did. 3. Pitch to a formal audience One of the best ways to get exposure for your idea and to potentially find a tech co-founder is to brave an audience. I entered my local business pitch competition just 40 minutes before the entries closed. I had neither researched my idea properly yet nor fully committed to progressing my concept. But I couldnt help thinking, What have I got to lose? As a last-minute entry, I never expected to make it through the first two rounds to then be tasked with persuading five judges and Silicon Valley VCs (surprise attendees – given that I live at a beach in Australia which is 7,000 miles from Palo Alto, Calif.) in front of 120 business folk on finals night. The outcome? I didnt win, but my startup did. Pitching to a formal audience forced me to switch from ideas mode to acceleration mode faster than I ever expected. It also sparked interest from peers, mentors and potential tech co-founders in the audience who I might never have met otherwise. So, while I wish the team who makes beehives hadnt beaten me, I am indebted to the pitch competition for pushing me further, faster. 4. Hunt down mentors The more you can improve your startup concept, the more chance youll have of being able to woo a tech co-founder. One of the best ways to do this is to get advice from experienced startup entrepreneurs whose input can help you get to your better idea, faster. Having attended a local Startup Weekend earlier in the year, I knew there were clever business people in my area who were willing to share. So instead of waiting for the next official startup event, I prioritized reaching out to them sooner rather than later. Their advice resulted in the first major pivot in my idea. Next, I booked myself into Mentor Blaze at a startup incubator in my nearest capital city. The three-hour round trip drive proved invaluable. I got the rare opportunity to test and refine the merits of my idea with five experienced entrepreneurs via 20-minute, one-on-one sessions. (Im talking about the kind of entrepreneurs who ordinarily would be too busy running their own empires to indulge the pipe dreams of strangers.) I also tapped into existing networks. I called Paul Kenny – a young tech leader in the Middle East who last year sold his startup for a reported $40 million. I figure that if you ever meet someone successful who invites you to call him or her for advice, you call! The combined advice of these mentors led to the second major pivot in my idea – a pivot that would later prove essential in helping me secure my tech co-founder. 5. Sweet-talk with real data If youre going to convince a tech co-founder (or VC or angel investor), youll need to impress with numbers. Not just the summary of votes cast by your family and friends, but enough numbers from strangers to persuade someone that your startup is too sweet to resist. One of the best ways that I found to do this was to use Google Consumer Surveys. For just $500 (actually it was less, because I scored a $75 coupon online), I surveyed 5,000 strangers across Australia to find out If you needed odd jobs done around your home, which website would you go to first? The results were so convincing that I also invested in follow-on surveys, which gave me a fabulous chunk of real data for my tech co-founder conversations. I also found a killer researcher on Elance. For $5-something-an-hour, she spent more than 100 hours trawling competitor sites to help me answer any question a tech co-founder might throw at me about the handyman industry in Australia. Meanwhile, I got on the phone and asked the advice of dozens of handymen themselves, as per the teachings of Lean Startup guru Steve Blank. I asked the handymen if/why they might use our service, their normal hourly rate, what they did/didnt like about our competitors services, and what they would like to see in our new service. Their insights again helped me improve my concept and better prepare me for co-founder conversations. 6. Talk to more than one potential co-founder Tech co-founders are in high demand, so its not uncommon to find them talking with multiple startups at once before they realise their superhero powers only stretch so far. This happened to me. But all hope was not lost because I was also (openly) talking to more than one tech co-founder. 7. Be courageous When I presented at my local business pitch competition, someone on a VIP table put their hand up to tell me why my concept wouldnt work. His comments made me literally die on stage, but after the presentations I somehow found the courage to go up and talk to him. Buried in our small talk, he happened to mention that Richard Eastes had stepped aside from running VroomVroomVroom(which has booked AU$70 million in car rentals) and was now looking for something else to do. I had only met Richard once, so I let the comment pass. But two months later when I signed up to attend a different event in a different city; I received one of those pre-event emails profiling six of the 200 people going to the event. Richards was serendipitously one of those six profiles, and it read: Responsible for three online success stories and is equally proud of his failures. Now looking for his next startup or investment. Bingo! I gathered my courage and wrote to Richard. Several conversations later, Richard and I became co-founders of Odd Jobs– Australias easiest way to book a handyman. 8. Ooze initiative I knew Richard had only partnered with me after he had narrowed down a list of 30 potential startups to choose from. Just recently, I asked him why… You ooze initiative. Most people have great ideas but seem to be waiting for a co-founder to give them permission to start taking real action. Youve already gone out and gathered lots of feedback, advice and data for your business case. Youve also proven that you dont need me to babysit you and that youre not afraid to ask for help. 9. Dont build a MVP, build a CAP So, whether you find a tech co-founder directly or strike it lucky on sites like Cofounders Lab , Founder2be or Founder Dating, I agree with Danny Beck that before you think about your MVP (Minimum Viable Product) you should build your CAP(Co-Founder Attracting Product): Going to any kind of startup or networking event with a CAP in your back pocket… will dramatically increase your chances of attracting a co-founder for you and your business. Plus, going through the process of creating a CAP will give you a ton of interesting information to talk to people about. This helped me find and sweet-talk a tech co-founder. And I hope it does for you too.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 23:28:10 +0000
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